Five years on and Rian Johnson’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” remains a lightning rod of conversation in “Star Wars” fandom.
This middle chapter in the sequel trilogy took the threads of the more familiar “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and went off in unexpected directions with it – to the delight of some fans and anger of others.
Though it pulled in over $1.3 billion worldwide, it remains a film that is seen to many as a turning point for “Star Wars”. In a major new Empire interview, Johnson says with a few years distance the film has only grown in his estimation:
“I’m even more proud of it five years on. When I was up at bat, I really swung at the ball.
I think it’s impossible for any of us to approach Star Wars without thinking about it as a myth that we were raised with, and how that myth, that story, baked itself into us and affected us.
The ultimate intent was not to strip away – the intent was to get to the basic, fundamental power of myth. And ultimately, I hope the film is an affirmation of the power of the myth of Star Wars in our lives.”
Part of the controversy and backlash surrounding the film was its depiction of Luke Skywalker – initially a closed-off hermit who rises to become a galactic symbol of hope and rebellion one last time. Of that depiction, Johnson says:
“The final images of the movie, to me, are not deconstructing the myth of Luke Skywalker, they’re building it, and they’re him embracing it. They’re him absolutely defying the notion of, ‘Throw away the past,’ and embracing what actually matters about his myth and what’s going to inspire the next generation. So for me, the process of stripping away is always in the interest of getting to something essential that really matters.”
No place better reflects the divide over the film than Rotten Tomatoes where it holds a critical rating of 91% and an Audience Score of 42%. The film originally opened in cinemas on December 15th 2017.
